Toy railroad cars



J. L. BONANNO 2,901,863

TOY RAILROAD CARS Original Filed April 23, 1949 Sept. 1, 1959 INVENTOR Jose? A. fio/vmwva ATTORNEY United States Patent TOY RAILROAD CARS Joseph L. Bonanno, South Orange, NJ., assignor to The Lionel Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Original application April 23, 1949, :Serial No. 89,290, now Patent No. 2,661,852, dated December 8, 1953. Divided and this application November 24, 1953, Serial No. 394,181

3 Claims. (Cl. 4'6-'245) The present invention relates to toy railroad cars and is more particularly directed to toy railroad cars having a working accessory adapted to be released by remote control.

This application is a division of my co-pending application, Serial No. 89,290, filed April 23, 1949, and now Patent No. 2,661,852, December 8, 1953.

In this is shown a form of toy railroad track having, in addition to the wheel bearing rails, a magnet coil between the rails adapted, when energized, to attract a car carried armature placed over the magnet. According to the present invention the car is provided with a working accessory having movable parts spring biased to one position and adapted to be manually shifted to a position to be latched against movement by a spring biased element shiftable by the armature when the latter is attracted by the magnet coil. In this manner it is possible to secure action in a toy car accessory by remote control without providing the car itself with the electromagnetic devices heretofore generally used.

Other and further objects of the invention will appear as the description proceeds.

The accompanying drawings show, for purposes of illustrating the present invention, one embodiment in which the invention may take form, it being understood that the drawings are illustrative of the invention, rather than limiting the same.

In these drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view of the track and toy car with parts in section;

Figure 2 is a top plan view of the working accessory;

Figure 3 is a transverse sectional view of the track magnet; and

Figure 4 is a perspective view of a detail.

The track section fragmentarily shown in the drawings as a sheet metal base generally indicated at 20 is to be used interchangeably with other standard toy track sections of the same gauge and track height. It has side walls 21, 21 which support it. These side walls are doubled back to form wheel bearing rails 22 extending the entire length of the section. The rails are interconnected by a platform portion 23 of the stamping at a level above the lower edges of the side elements 21.

The power rail 40 is widened as indicated, and has an aperture 43. An insulating spool element 44 has an upper end 45 received in the opening 43 and a lower round end 46 adapted to be received in the well 26. This spool element carries a coil indicated at 47 and a core, indicated at 48. The coil is connected to a remote control device, as shown in the patent above referred to.

The toy car has the usual trucks 90, one of which is shown, a car platform 120 and a car body 121 with sliding door 122 with lug 122'. The car platform 120 carries a trigger housing 123 which receives a steel trigger pin 124 having a collar 125 bearing on an expansion spring 126. The lower end of the pin 124 is secured to a magnetizable button 127 adapted to be placed over the core e ICC 48 of the track magnet so that the trigger pin may be pulled down when the track coil is energized.

The platform carries a plate 128 pivoted at 129 and biased in a counter-clockwise direction by a spring 130. The plate has a finger 128' engageable with lug 122' to open the door and has a slot 131 to receive the keylike end 132 of an arm 133 pivoted at 134. The arm 133 has an upwardly bent prong 135 carrying a figure 136.

When the trigger pin is up, the parts are latched in the full line position of Figure 2, and when it is down, the spring swings the plate and opens the door and this movement also moves the figure out to the doorway as shown in dotted lines.

Pushing the door back to closed position shifts the plate back to full line position, whereupon the trigger pin is urged upwardly to lock plate 128 in place.

Since it is obvious that the invention may be embodied in other forms and constructions within the scope of the claims, I wish it to be understood that the particular form shown is but one of these forms, and, various modifications and changes being possible, I do not otherwise limit myself in any way with respect thereto.

What is claimed is:

1. A toy car having a car body with a platform having an opening therein, wheeled trucks carried by the car body, a pair of track rails for said trucks, a plunger mounted in an opening in the platform, one extremity of the plunger extending below the platform and the other extremity extending slightly above the platform, a coil spring disposed about said plunger below the platform normally holding said plunger in a raised position so that the lower extremity of said plunger is clear of the track rails, means independent of the car body adapted to actuate said plunger by attracting said plunger whereby the upper extremity of said plunger is withdrawn to a position slightly below the car platform against the tension in said coil spring, and a car carried mechanism manually movable into a position to be latched by the upper extremity of said plunger, against movement, when the plunger is in its normal position, said car carried mechanism including a slidable door in the car body, a plunger plate, said plunger plate being latched by the upper extremity of the plunger, a lug on said plunger plate engaging the slidable door, a spring biased against the latched plunger plate whereby the door is opened when the plunger unlatches the plunger plate and a lever, connected to said plunger plate, carrying a mannikin movable towards the opened doorway exposed when the plunger plate lug forces the door open under the action of the spring, said lever having a lost motion driving connection with the plunger plate.

2. A toy car having a car body with a platform having an opening therein, wheeled trucks carried by the car body, a pair of track rails for said trucks, a plunger mounted in said opening in the platform, one extremity of the plunger extending below the platform and the other extremity extending slightly above the platform, a coil spring disposed about said plunger below the platform normally holding said plunger in a raised position so that the lower extremity of said plunger is clear of the track rails, means independent of the car body adapted to actuate said plunger by attracting said plunger whereby the upper extremity of said plunger is withdrawn to a position slightly below the car platform against the tension in said coil spring, and a car carried mechanism manually movable into a position to be latched by the upper extremity of said plunger, against movement, when the plunger is in its normal position, said car carried mechanism including a slidable door in the car body, a plunger plate, said plunger plate being latched by the upper extremity of the plunger, a lug on said plunger plate engaging the slidable door, a spring biased against the latched plunger plate whereby the door is opened when the plunger unlatches the plunger plate.

3. A toy car having a car body with a platform having an opening therein, Wheeled trucks carried by the car body, track rails for said trucks, a magnetic plunger mounted in said opening in the platform, one extremity of the plunger extending below the platform and the other extremity extending above the platform, a car carried member pivotally movable on said car body, a door connected to said member and slidable between an opened and a closed position on said car body by movement of said member, means biasing said member to an actuated position holding said car door open, means biasing said plunger toward a raised position into latching holding engagement with said member at which position said car door is closed, means independent of the car body adapted to actuate said plunger by attracting it downwardly whereby it is withdrawn from latching engagement with said member to release said member and open said door.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 888,416 Bodde May 19, 1908 988,334 Hammett Apr. 4, 1911 1,261,376 Fox et a1. Apr. 2, 1918 1,475,713 Napier Nov. 27, 1923 2,254,063 Drake Aug. 26, 1941 2,260,460 Klingebiel Oct. 28, 1941 2,288,792 Daniels July 7, 1942 2,298,431 Sullivan et a1. Oct. 13, 1942 2,664,664 Bonanno et a1. Jan. 5, 1954 

